


I Love Science

by Nocticola



Series: Ace/Aro characters [54]
Category: Princeless, Raven the Pirate Princess
Genre: Aggressively Arospec Week 2019, American Sign Language, Aromantic Awareness Week, Canon Aromantic Character, Canon Asexual Character, Deaf Character, Gen, Queerplatonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2019-10-30 10:06:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17826653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nocticola/pseuds/Nocticola
Summary: Jayla and Cid have more in common than a love for science. (They are both aroace)





	1. Jayla

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Books 1 to 6.
> 
> Cid chapter coming soon.

Jayla Cooke leaves home to become a pirate, partly so spite her Dad, and partly for the adventure of it all. The start isn't great, because she's curt and people don't listen to her even when she just trying to help. 

One of those attempts to help unfortunately leads to her temporarily losing her hearing. She was just too close to an explosion. It's annoying and frustrating, and she feels like she's completely useless. She's never been a very patient person. But she's lucky to have Cid with her. Cid is deaf, and she is always eager to teach people (American) sign language. 

At first, Jayla fears she'll never be able to learn sign language, that she will be completely cut off from everyone and everything until her hearing comes back. But Cid is patient and kind and doesn't let her give up. And as she learns the language, Jayla realizes that Cid is really cool. She also enjoys science and explosions, and sign language is a really cool language. It's nice to have another language to communicate in. It's almost secret, except some other people on the ship know it too. It's really good for missions, though. 

Jayla has never been shy about the fact that she doesn't like romance. She's never been interested, and in many ways she's grossed out by all of it. The idea that she'd like to share spit with someone, let alone anything else, it doesn't make sense. She knows it makes her a bit weird, but she doesn't care. 

When suddenly everywhere she goes, she runs into a couple kissing, Jayla's really annoyed. They have an important mission to deal with, there's no time for making out and flirting. It's all so weird and disgusting to Jayla. Even someone who she thought had the same ideas about all this, Quinn, is all about Zoe these days. 

When Jayla pretended she hadn't regained her hearing, she did it because she worried Cid might not want to be her friend anymore if she was fully hearing again. Of course, Cid called her stupid, and it was the only time she was happy to have someone call her that. But now, she worries again. She doesn't want to lose Cid to kissing or to romance. 

So, Jayla has to ask. She doesn't have the words in ASL yet, but luckily Cid can understand her enough to get what she's asking. 

_"So, I don’t know what I like and I think all of that is gross. Boys, girls, all of it. Maybe that makes me weird. What do you like?"_

Jayla waits for Cid's answer with baited breath. If her friend does like something, she'll be supportive. She just wants to know. 

Cid smiles as she signs the most beautiful sentence: _"I-LOVE-SCIENCE."_

Jayla is so relieved and happy. _"Same."_

Jayla has finally found a place to belong, and a kindred spirit. They'll always have each other. What more should a girl want? 


	2. Cid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not deaf or know ASL so hope I can do this well. Her aroaceness is also not as blatant as Jayla, so while I think it's canon (Who do you like? I-LOVE-SCIENCE) that could be changed, I guess.

Cid hasn't always had the best life but she's never let that stop her. She went deaf young, though she's not one from birth, and she had to work hard to learn both lip reading and ASL. Luckily she met Amirah a few years ago who already knew ASL so they could communicate with each other and they became fast friends. Even family. Cid hasn't had much of that.

Because of Amirah she felt happy to go with Raven's crew. Cid has always craved adventure, and she's sure to find it on a pirate ship. With Amirah's help, she can keep track what everyone says and earn her keep by keeping the ship running.

She loves observing people, especially when they don't know it. She liked Jayla from the beginning. Sure, she has a temper but Cid is pretty sure Jayla loves science as much as she does. They work together on the missions, but they are not quite friends yet. 

That changes when one of their missions go terribly wrong. Jayla stays too close to an explosion and she goes almost deaf temporarily. Cid isn't happy about that but she knows how to help Jayla. Even though Jayla doesn't know ASL yet, Cid's expressions tell her all she needs to understand.

After that, they are friends for life. After initial frustrations, Jayla was a quick student. Soon, she had 2 people she could always communicate with. It feels amazing and she is really happy.

Before Jayla finally told her that she can hear again, Cid had started to guess that. She noticed things that Cid didn't even though she acted like she didn't. Amirah clearly gave Jayla the riot act so she'd tell Cid the truth. 

While it was great to have a friend who was in the same situation as she is, Cid wasn't Jayla's friend because she was deaf. They have so many other things in common and she wouldn't lose her for the world.

One of the things Cid enjoys about Jayla is that they seem to feel the same way about romance for themselves. Cid does like romance, she enjoys seeing people be happy with each other and unlike Jayla she doesn't find kissing gross. For other people. For herself, she has never craved anything more or different than what she has with Jayla and the other women in the crew. She's happy with friendships.

Like Jayla, she kinda doesn't have the words for that, though. When Jayla talks about who likes who on this ship and tells Cid that maybe she's weird for not wanting that with anyone, Cid can relate. So when Jayla asks who does she like, she says what makes most sense to her: 

_"I-LOVE-SCIENCE."_

Jayla looks happy, and they high five.

_"Same._ " 

And with that simple word and gesture, Cid knows that as long as she has Jayla and Amirah and the rest of her family on this ship, she's happy.


End file.
